NAV Says He’s Done Using The N-Word In His Music

The XO rapper’s use of the term has caused controversy.

XO signee NAV sat down with Complex for his first ever interview to discuss his new project Perfect Timing with Metro Boomin and his rapid rise to stardom. Later on, he touched on a contentious issue: his use of the n-word in his music. NAV is of Indian descent (his parents are from the northern Indian region of Punjab), and he’s previously been called out for using the word as a non-black artist.

In the interview, NAV explained that he’s no longer using the n-word in his music:

Well, it’s like, the neighborhood I grew up in is very multicultural. It goes from Chinese to white to black to Jamaican, everything, right? Everybody uses that word freely. A Chinese guy is saying it to me, I’m saying it to a black guy, a black guy’s saying it to me. It’s all like that. I was making music for me and my friends in the beginning. So I didn’t really think anything of it. But then once I got to the global level and I started seeing a little bit of backlash, I totally cut it out. I respect it. In my neighborhood it’s cool, but out here it’s not cool. So I just play by the rules. [On Perfect Timing], you won’t hear me say it once.